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Wednesday, August 27, 2014

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said Sunday Egypt is working to ensure that
the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) does not damage its water interests
or reduce Egypt’s “historical share of water”. Al-Sisi added that he does not
mind visiting Ethiopia, “once, twice or even three times in order to resolve
the issue in a way that completely preserves Egypt’s share of Nile water.” The
president was cited by state-run MENA as saying this to the editors-in-chief of
newspapers and news services, including MENA’s. His statements come hours ahead
of the beginning of a new round of tripartite negotiations between Egypt,
Ethiopia and Sudan on GERD, which will be held in the Sudanese capital Khartoum
on Monday and Tuesday. Egypt’s Water and Irrigation Minister Hossam El-Din
Moghazy and the delegation he is leading were received Sunday afternoon by his
Sudanese counterpart Motaz Mousa. Before starting his trip, Moghazy said the
negotiations would start on Monday and that there would be no turning back,
state-run Al-Ahram reported. Mousa was cited by MENA as saying that the
atmosphere of the negotiations is dominated by optimism to achieve positive
results that satisfy all parties. The last round of tripartite talks was held
in January but ended without reaching an agreement. It was preceded by
tripartite talks in November and December of last year, but these also failed. Moghazy
said the upcoming talks would be held based on the results of the meeting
between Al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on the
sidelines of the African Union summit in June. Al-Sisi said he received
promises from Desalegn during the talks that the dam would have no negative
effects whatsoever on Egypt’s share of water, whether during construction,
operation or during filling the dam lake. Following the meeting, Egypt and
Ethiopia agreed to form a joint committee to streamline discussions on GERD.
The agreement, which outlined seven steps for the continuing construction of the
dam, was formulated by the foreign ministers of both countries, but was
directly overseen and endorsed by Al-Sisi and Desalegn.
Both nations hailed the agreement as a “new chapter in relations between
Egypt and Ethiopia… based on openness and mutual understanding and
cooperation.” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called Ethiopian
counterpart Tedros Adhanom on Thursday and the two sides agreed to continue
communication during the time of the tripartite talks and to facilitate
negotiations if necessary. Egypt and Ethiopia have been locked in a diplomatic
dispute over GERD, since Egypt fears that the dam will affect its share of Nile
water. Downstream countries Egypt and Sudan together receive the majority of
Nile water. As per agreements signed in 1929 and 1959, Egypt annually receives
55.5bn cubic metres of the estimated total 84bn cubic metres of Nile water
produced each year and Sudan receives 18.5bn cubic metres. However, the two
water sharing agreements, which guarantee Egypt the lion’s share of water, were
signed in the absence of Ethiopia. In February, bilateral talks between Egypt
and Ethiopia ended after failure to resolve key points of debate between the
two countries. During a meeting with Adhanom in June, Al-Sisi said that Egypt
understands Ethiopia’s development needs but added that this must go
hand-in-hand with Ethiopian understanding of Egypt’s water needs, and that
Egypt has no alternatives to the Nile for its growing water needs. In 2013,
while serving as Minister of Defence, Al-Sisi rejected the idea of using
military force to resolve water issues. Despite Shoukry’s prior indication that
he would visit Addis Ababa, the foreign minister went to Saudi Arabia on
Saturday to attend a meeting with the purpose of finding a political solution to
the crisis in Syria. Source (Daily News Egypt)